Filmmakers Robert Young and Michael Roemer had originally planned to make a documentary on the experiences of an average southern black man; the result was the fictional but nonetheless realistic Nothing But a Man. Ivan Dixon stars as an African-American railroad worker who can't seem to assume any responsibilities in his private life. When he falls in love with the daughter (Abbey Lincoln) of a minister, the girl's father tells him to get lost until he can get his act together. Dixon doesn't want to commit himself to marriage, nor does he approve of the minister's subservient attitude toward whites, so he wanders about aimlessly, touching bases with the woman (Gloria Foster) who bore him his child, and with his alcoholic father. He also experiences brief, ugly spurts of racism which make him question his own shaky values. The death of his father causes Dixon to wake up and smell the coffee; if he doesn't want to end his life used up and without dignity, he'd better get a handle on his future existence. A stellar attraction of the 1964 New York Film Festival, Nothing But a Man was rightly praised for the universality of the "getting hold of your life" theme, which transcended the racial boundaries set up in the storyline.